Major League facial hair is more about superstition than fashion, as if to shave — or not to shave — could influence what happens on the diamond.

Actually, baseball beards have a long religious history, a remnant of which can be found in South Dennis.

Ironically, William "Burly Bill" Kimball isn't fond of hairy faces, which may explain why he is now beardless and a lifelong fan of the clean-shaven Yankees, even in the midst of Red Sox nation.

It wasn't always so for the 83-year-old former semipro pitcher and first baseman.

When Kimball played for the barnstorming House of David baseball team in 1954 and 1955 — the last two years the unusual collection of players took to the field — he was required to report to camp in Benton Harbor, Mich., with a full beard.

The original House of David team was started by a celibate entrepreneurial religious sect of Christian "Israelites" founded in 1903 by an itinerant preacher named Benjamin Purnell.

In the late 1920s, the religious community of about 1,200 organized a baseball team that traveled the country playing other teams in the semipro circuit.

"I played against the House of David one time and beat 'em. So the manager says, 'If you are ever out of a job, call me up,'" said Kimball, who was never a member of Purnell's religious sect. "Two years later, he called me and said, 'Report to Benton Harbor with a beard.'"

"I grew it in three weeks. I had a flowing heavy beard with a red touch. I didn't mind playing with the beard. But, I don't like beards, not a bit," he said, as we sat in his den surrounded by piles of old newspaper clippings, handwritten notebooks, photos and promotional posters documenting his time with the team.

The original House of David didn't allow blacks to play or worship with them. When the team splintered in 1934, an offshoot managed by Hall of Fame pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander signed two Negro League players: the legendary Hall of Fame flamethrower "Satchel" Paige and his favorite catcher, Cy Perkins.

Kimball's baseball memorabilia includes a framed 1955 front page of the Arizona Daily Star featuring Paige standing next to him at a game in which "the bearded nine" beat the great pitcher, 2-1, thanks to a walk-off triple hit by Kimball.

The House of David team traveled with and played against the Harlem Globetrotters baseball team in small cities and towns across the country. (Yes, the Globetrotters also had a baseball team, though they were much less famous than the basketball team of the same name.)

Besides the beards, House of David players were also noted for their "pepper game" in between innings, entertaining the huge crowds.

The pepper game called for "a player to hit to three teammates who flipped the ball over their backs and between their legs with such speed that it seemed to disappear," according to Larry Tye's excellent biography, "Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend."

They played 130 games a year, which Tye described as "a strange sight, with braided hair often reaching their shoulder blades, bushy whiskers, and a community member working the bleachers before each game, handing out religious literature and selling pictures of the players."

By the time Kimball came along, there had been five different iterations of House of David teams. Paige, whom Kimball described as a generous "loner," was no longer their main attraction, having assembled his own Paige All Stars. Paige often played against Kimball and his teammates, managed then by George Anderson, one of the original House of David players.

"We played in small towns before the interstate highway and television. They (Harlem Globetrotters) had the big bus. We only had two station wagons and a car," Kimball said.

Kimball evaluated his baseball career with brutal honesty. He was an all-star pitcher at Whitman High School, where he played against Rocky Marciano, who would later became the undefeated heavyweight boxing champ.

Kimball explained how the Major League ball clubs had Triple-A, Double-A and Single-A farm teams. They also had B, C, and D teams. Kimball was a D-team player, he said, though at the age of 24, he did outpitch a 44-year-old Satchel Paige in a game at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.

In his last year with the House of David, Kimball hit .274, he said, checking an old, handwritten notebook of his career statistics.

In those days, baseball players weren't paid the mega-millions of today. As a minor league player, he was paid $350 a month. It wasn't big money, but enough to scrape by.

The House of David's last game was in Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C., where the Washington Senators played.

"I played left field in that last game," Kimball said. "It was a real honor."

Though he left baseball behind after playing three seasons in the Cape Cod Baseball League in the late 1950s, the retired building contractor remains a trivia-loving baseball fan.

As you might expect, he's bothered by the use of steroids in baseball and considers "cheaters" like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens unworthy of the Hall of Fame.

He doesn't care for the designated hitter position or the "sloppy" appearance of the current crop of Red Sox, though he does admire Dustin Pedroia.

And every morning, he gets in his white Cadillac with the license plate that says "Burly," drives to the Olympia Seafood and Lobster House Restaurant in South Yarmouth for eggs and bacon, religiously wearing, not a beard, but his Yankees baseball cap. His old House of David cap he keeps in a box in the attic.